Could it be? Oh, it be; it's time once again for everyone's favorite guessing game, "Product or Pipe Dream?" Yes, folks, you too can win fabulous prizes simply by guessing whether the latest round of alleged "spy photos" are genuine contraband snapshots of unannounced Apple products, or just the contrivance of some sad individual with a bootleg copy of Photoshop and way too much time on his hands. Well, okay... we lied about the "fabulous prizes" part. But hey, at the very least it's a great way to kill an afternoon at work, thus contributing still further to the rampant decline of productivity and the eventual collapse of civilization as we know it. Everybody wins!

So here's the deal: a site called Top Technical Tips (no, we've never heard of them either) recently posted some photos of what is allegedly the box for some sort of Apple "thing" called Pal. The box boasted a green stylized lightbulb graphic, the Pal product name, and a smattering of marketingspeak that was cut off in the photo, but includes such interesting phrases as "Green Light the Internet," "take your life on the road," and "Forget disks. Forget syncing." So whaddayathink? Some new Apple software product that lets you access your Desktop from any Mac via the Internet? Or some hoax intended to generate a zillion hits to an otherwise obscure new web site? Answer correctly and this lovely KitchenAid 5-Speed Blender can be yours!

No, actually, we're lying about the blender, too, but it's still fun to play. The photos vanished (ahem) from TopTechTips, but several kind people in the MacRumors forums posted links to their own copies, so you can still judge for yourself. Personally, we think they look nice, but they still smell about as fishy as Mrs. Paul after a long day of deboning flounder. We're not buyin' it.

We could easily be wrong, of course (in fact, we thought we were wrong once before, but we were mistaken), and given the latest update at TopTechTips (culled from the MacRumors forums, we gather), we hope we are. After all, who wouldn't want a "small wireless device with a touch sensitive screen, which can remotely login to your desktop Mac" with a "pen-based input method" that's positioned as a "Mac companion" that's "suitable for surfing the web on the move"? There have been those rumors of a new Apple "digital lifestyle device" coming soon, you know. So could it be true? Could Pal indeed be a "handy means of accessing your Desktop and the Internet wherever you are"? Get it right and you could go home with this invigorating Acupressure Foot Spa!

But not really.